Another Cup of Tea
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Sophie thought she was used to Howl's eccentricities. She supposed there was no harm in humoring this particular whim. AKA Howl has an un-birthday party post Howl books


**Prompt: Any book fandom, any, "A very merry UnBirthday to me."**

 _AN: Saw this and thought of Howl immediately. ^_^_

~o0O0o~

Sophie woke feeling that something was wrong. It wasn't the sense that the world was ending, more the feeling she had when Morgan decided to see if he could charm the broom to fly out the window. Sophie sat very still. Howl wasn't in their bed, but that wasn't odd. Howl often kept odd hours when Sophie wasn't prodding him to keep a schedule. Morgan wasn't clamoring for her to wake up, but that wasn't odd either as if Howl was awake, he often bothered him in the mornings until Sophie either woke or Howl sent him off to bother her instead. All in all, there was nothing in particular that she could point out as putting her on edge. But Sophie had come to trust her instincts in these things over the years with Howl.

Sure enough, when she wandered down into the kitchen, their functional kitchen had been transformed into some sort of eclectic tea party. There were at least eight tea pots and a dozen mismatching cups littering their kitchen and vases of flowers from the shop placed around the room in garishly bright bouquets. At one end of the table, Morgan sat on a stool sipping tea from an over sized tea cup that looked like it had once been a decorative bowl Fannie had given Sophie for her last birthday. At the other end of the table was Howl. He perched on a chair wearing an eccentric green tailcoat with a large top hat on his head. Sometime during the night he'd dyed his hair ginger for some reason. Sophie pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Howl. What are you doing?"

"Reliving a childhood memory," Howl said with a wide grin.

"I'm having tea, Mum," Morgan said, holding up his tea-bowl.

"I see that," Sophie said to Morgan. She rounded the table and ignored the puffs of multicolored steam coming from the teapots. "You look ridiculous," she said to Howl. "And where did you get such an awful hat?" No self-respecting hat maker would have let Howl leave with such a poorly made monstrosity or one that fit so badly.

Howl swept the hat off his head and plopped it onto Sophie. "You're right, you make a much better Mad Hatter. After all, you already were one."

"Howl." Sophie was not amused, but Howl was moving on to fill her a cup of tea, humming something under his breath. He hadn't stopped grinning. He pushed a cup into her hands before leading her into a chair. Sophie frowned at the tea. It was a brilliant blue color and smelled like lilacs. She really hoped that it wasn't one of Howl's concoctions from the bathroom. "Howl, what is going on?"

"Throwing an un-birthday party," Howl said. He hummed more of the song, flourishing one hand to make a bud bloom to put in Sophie's hair.

"A what?"

"An _un-birthday,_ Mum," Morgan said like it was obvious. He set down his tea. Thankfully it was regular tea color. "It's like a birthday but not."

That clarified nothing. She set the tea down without drinking it. "Any why are you having an…un-birthday?"

"Because I felt like it." Howl sat back in his chair. He drank his tea before suddenly standing up. Morgan stood up too and they moved to another seat. "New seat, Sophie, new seat."

Her frown deepened, but let herself be shunted along to another seat.

"Ah, a fresh cup." Howl poured pale pink tea into a tiny green and gold cup. Sophie didn't bother to pour tea at all. "Sophie, why is a raven like a writing desk?"

"Pardon?"

"No answer? A pity."

"I don't think the two are alike at all," Morgan said. He sloshed tea into one of their everyday teacups.

"Is there even an answer to that?" Sophie asked, curious in spite of herself.

"A very good question," Howl said. "The answer to that is that either there isn't one, or that it's whatever similarities you can think of."

"Why ask a question without an answer?"

"Why ask any question at all?" Howl shot back with his best smile. It was one of his less sincere smiles and Sophie always wanted to shake him a bit when he directed it at her even as it made her heart flutter a bit.

"This is entirely pointless," she sighed.

"And that's entirely the point." He smiled into his tea. Morgan was smiling too, and the chaos in the kitchen aside, Sophie supposed that as far as Howl's shenanigans went, this was among the more harmless of them. "You must admit, Sophie, it's rather fun."

Now Howl was turning that earnest expression of his on her and Sophie found it working like it usually did. She grumbled under her breath and reached for a pot of tea. "There better not be anything funny in the tea."

"I'd never."

Lies. But she was the one that married the man. "You're cleaning up the mess."

Howl laughed and started singing, Morgan joining in. "A very merry un-birthday, for me! For who?"

Sophie drank her tea and resigned herself for a very eclectic morning. One never knew what they would wake up to when living with the wizard Howl.


End file.
